The present invention concerns a furniture hinge comprising a base plate to be fixed to a furniture carcass and a hinge arm which can be displaced in a controlled manner relative to the base plate by an adjusting device within a predetermined adjusting range, wherein the adjusting device prevents the hinge arm from falling off the base plate due to displacement, wherein the furniture hinge has a safety catcher device for the hinge arm which prevents the hinge arm from falling off relative to the base plate upon an uncontrolled displacement of the hinge arm caused by a failure of the adjusting device.
The invention further concerns an article of furniture comprising at least one furniture hinge of the kind to be described.
Such an adjusting device makes it possible to adjust a door connected to the furniture hinge, in the depth direction, so that therefore it is possible to adjust the spacing of the door relative to the front side of a furniture carcass. The adjusting device for depth adjustment can have a rotatably mounted actuating element, for example in the form of an eccentric screw which is connected to the base plate and which displaces the hinge arm relative to the base plate upon actuation by a user.
A furniture hinge having such an adjusting device is described for example in DE 203 19 539 U1 to the present applicant. The depth adjusting device in an embodiment can have an eccentric screw riveted to the base plate. In the industrial manufacture of such rivet connections however it is quite possible that one rivet connection or the other is not exactly closed. In such a case there is the danger that the eccentric screw can tear loose from the base plate in the mounted position, whereupon the hinge arm is completely detached relative to the base plate, with the further consequence of leading to the door connected to the furniture hinge dropping off. That falling movement on the part of the door leaf can cause injury to people or damage to adjacent objects.
EP 1 236 853 A2 describes a hinge having a two-part base plate formed by a bottom part and a top part. The top part can be moved in the lateral direction relative to the bottom part by way of a height adjusting screw. Arranged on the bottom part is a means for preventing falling-out disengagement in the form of a bendable lug which after mounting of the top side is pressed upwardly and in so doing bears against an associated surface of the top part so that displacement between the bottom part and the top part is no longer possible. That securing means serves to hold the bottom part and the top part in the condition of being connected together even if the height adjusting screw provided is defective. A disadvantage of that structure is that the bent lug no longer permits displacement between the top part and the bottom part.